I have recently realised that I have Seventy years remaining on my lease in Alderley Edge. I now want to get lease extension but my landlord is missing. What options are available to me?

If you meet the appropriate requirements, under the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 you can apply to the County Court for an order to dispense with the service of the initial notice. This will enable the lease to be extended by the magistrate. You will be obliged to prove that you or your lawyers have used your best endeavours to find the lessor. In some cases an enquiry agent would be useful to carry out a search and prepare an expert document which can be accepted by the court as proof that the landlord is indeed missing. It is advisable to get professional help from a solicitor in relation to devolving into the landlord’s disappearance and the application to the County Court covering Alderley Edge.

I’m about to sell my garden flat in Alderley Edge.Conveyancing lawyers have not yet been instructed but I have just received a yearly service charge demand – what should I do?

The sensible thing to do is clear the invoice as normal because all ground rent and service charges will be apportioned on completion, so you will be reimbursed by the buyer for the period running from after the completion date to the next payment date. Most management companies will not acknowledge the buyer unless the service charges have been paid and are up to date so it is important for both buyer and seller for the seller to show that they are up to date. This will smooth the conveyancing process.

I am tempted by the attractive purchase price for a couple of apartments in Alderley Edge which have approximately forty five years unexpired on the leases. Do I need to be concerned?

There are plenty of short leases in Alderley Edge. The lease is a legal document that entitles you to use the property for a period of time. As a lease gets shorter the marketability of the lease reduces and it becomes more expensive to acquire a lease extension. For this reason it is often a good idea to increase the term of the lease. More often than not it is difficult to sell a property with a short lease because mortgage lenders less inclined to grant a loan on such properties. Lease enfranchisement can be a difficult process. We advise that you seek professional assistance from a conveyancer and surveyor with experience in this field

Do you have any advice for leasehold conveyancing in Alderley Edge from the point of view of speeding up the sale process?

• Much of the delay in leasehold conveyancing in Alderley Edge can be bypassed where you instruct lawyers as soon as your agents start advertising the property and request that they start to put together the leasehold documentation which will be required by the purchasers’ solicitors.
• The majority landlords or Management Companies in Alderley Edge levy fees for supplying management packs for a leasehold homes. You or your lawyers should find out the fee that they propose to charge. The management information can be applied for as soon as you have a buyer, thus accelerating the process. The typical amount of time it takes to receive management information is three weeks. It is the most frequent cause of delay in leasehold conveyancing in Alderley Edge.
• A minority of Alderley Edge leases require Licence to Assign from the landlord. If this is the case, it would be prudent to notify your estate agents to make sure that the purchasers put in hand financial (bank) and professional references. The bank reference should make it clear that the buyer is financially capable of paying the yearly service charge and the actual amount of the service charge should be quoted in the bank’s letter. You will therefore need to provide your estate agents with the service charge figures so that they can pass this information on to the purchasers or their lawyers.
• If you hold a share in a the Management Company, you should ensure that you are holding the original share document. Arranging a replacement share certificate can be a lengthy formality and delays many a Alderley Edge home move. Where a new share certificate is needed, you should approach the company director and secretary or managing agents (where applicable) for this as soon as possible.
• You believe that you know the number of years remaining on your lease but it would be advisable double-check via your solicitors. A purchaser's conveyancer will be unlikely to recommend their client to where the lease term is under 75 years. It is therefore important at an as soon as possible that you identify whether the lease term for your property needs extending. If it does, contact your solicitors before you put your home on the market for sale.

If all goes to plan we aim to complete the sale of our £ 225000 garden flat in Alderley Edge in nine days. The landlords agents has quoted £<Macro 'feeRangeWithVAT'> for Certificate of Compliance, building insurance schedule and previous years statements of service charge. Is the landlord entitled to charge an administration fee for a leasehold conveyance in Alderley Edge?

For most leasehold sales in Alderley Edge conveyancing will involve, questions about the management of a building inevitably needing to be answered directly by the freeholder or its agent, this includes :

• Completing conveyancing due diligence enquiries
• Where consent is required before sale in Alderley Edge
• Copies of the building insurance and schedule
• Deeds of covenant upon sale
• Registering of the assignment of the change of lessee after a sale

Your lawyer will have no control over the level of the charges for this information but the average costs for the information for Alderley Edge leasehold premises is £350. For Alderley Edge conveyancing transactions it is customary for the seller to pay for these costs. The landlord or their agents are under no legal obligation to answer such questions most will be willing to do so - albeit often at exorbitant prices where the fees bear little relation to the work involved. Unfortunately there is no law that requires fixed charges for administrative tasks. Neither is there any legal time frame by which they are obliged to provide the information.

Leasehold Conveyancing in Alderley Edge - Examples of Questions you should ask Prior to Purchasing

How many of the leaseholders are in arrears for their maintenance charge payments? It would be wise to find out if the the lease contains any unreasonable restrictions in the lease. For instance some leases prohibit pets being permitted in in a block in Alderley Edge. If you love the apartmentin Alderley Edge but your cat can’t make the move with you then you have a very difficult choice. Is anyone aware of any major works in the near future that will increase the service charges?